


Desperate Measures

by UnapologeticallyMeatwad



Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: Age Difference, Angst with a Happy Ending, Detectives, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Past Relationship(s), Past Relationship: Dr. Drakken/Shego, Past Relationship: Kim Possible/Ron Stoppable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26635360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnapologeticallyMeatwad/pseuds/UnapologeticallyMeatwad
Summary: After Global Justice inadvertently kicks off an arms' race that factors out everyone who doesn't have super powers, Kim loses her badge and Drakken ceases to be relevant as a supervillain. When Shego sues Drakken for trying to steal her superpowers, Detective Kimberly Ann Possible is on the case to defend her former archfoe.
Relationships: Dr. Drakken/Kim Possible
Kudos: 4





	Desperate Measures

**Author's Note:**

  * For [neosaiyanangel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/neosaiyanangel/gifts).



She comes to him in the middle of the night. Not conventionally,  _ oh no. _ Kim Possible never gets the taste of a conventional life — which is ironic considering how things turned out.

It starts with a television report. Motor Ed and Doctor Drakken are terrorizing Denver. Kim rushes there and it’s a disaster. Highways torn apart, lamp posts fallen over. 

Ron stands over it. He looks like Hell, she hasn’t seen him in a hot second, and sidles up to him. He doesn’t look at her, at first she thinks it’s because of that eyepatch on his right. But then his fingers extend to her, a cigarette dangling between them. Reluctantly, she takes it and puffs. 

“Why are you here?” Ron rasps. “I thought you were done.”

“No,” Kim shakes her head. 

Five years ago Doctor Betty Director made the mistake of a lifetime. She needed one bodyguard for a major deal with Big Daddy Brotherson. She chose cunning over brute strength; she picked Kim.

It was a trap and Kim wasn’t strong enough.

Kim failed. Betty died. Will Du stepped into the Director’s chair and decided that he didn’t want people without superpowers on his team. Took Kim’s badge and Ron didn’t look back, why would he? Fucker.

It was stupid, Will’s an idiot. You make your army superpowered, then everyone against you has to be superpowered to. Hence this blitzkrieg of an arms race. Ron doesn’t think that though. Moron.

“Motor Ed and Drakken?” Kim says when Ron doesn’t say shit. 

“Yup,” Ron motions to get the cigarette back. 

Kim doesn’t actually smoke so she pinches the thing closed and tosses it to the ground. “You should quit, and it’s not Ed and Drakken. I don’t know how you are still so straight forward.”

“What?” Ron scowls. “It’s them. News said so.”

“Why would Drakken work with Ed?” Kim says, taking a step forward to challenge him, see if he stops her. “Ever since Shego and Drakken split, he hasn’t really worked well with others. Remember Dementor?”

Ron winces. 

“Yeah,” Kim smiles. “C’mon champ. You’re in the big leagues. Wise up.” 

Kim is a detective now. Wade helps her with some basic things, even though he’s still at Global Justice. (Apparently his brain counts as a superpower.)

“Drakken’s been known to keep trying things that don’t work,” Ron pulls out another cigarette. 

“You’re projecting,” Kim snarks. “You should have left me sooner.”

Ron twirls the cigarette, making elegant smoke circles. “Whatever, go ahead. Do your thing. I can give you five minutes before I need to phone shit in.”

She almost stays and asks him what happened. But she’s thankful she didn’t turn out like him. If this what superpowers do she doesn’t want any part of it.

Kim nods and moves out. She crawls through the wreckage and finds no Motor Ed, but she does see Drakken covered in grease and dirt, sobbing. She doesn’t say anything and drags him by the trench-coat and throws him into a sewer. She jumps down with him, ankle deep in yuck and leans him against the wall. “Talk to me.”

“Kimberly Ann?” he whispers. 

That’s how it starts.

Drakken tells Kim a story. She listens. Motor Ed came to Drakken.  _ C’mon Drew! I just busted out Aviarius, we got the good stuff. We make a disaster and use this wand thing to steal Ron and everyone else’s powers. So easy! _ And he didn’t take no for an answer, and it went on for weeks apparently. Lots of small crimes that got covered up, tonight was the big blowout, the true bid for power.

No one finds Motor Ed though, that’s what Wade lets Kim know when Drakken is half a confession in.

Kim feels sorry for the Drakken and sneaks him out of the sewers. She takes him to her studio apartment and slides him into a wooden chair, setting him up with a pot of coffee. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days. He just keeps on sobbing and sobbing. Too long for it to be fake. 

Maybe it’s because Kim’s lonely, hard to say, but she trusts Drakken. She thinks he’s being truthful with her. She wants it to be true. 

“Something else is bothering you,” Kim says, pushing the coffee mug closer to him so he remembers to take it. “What’s wrong?”

Drakken blinks away the tears and rubs his eyes. “It’s Shego.”

Kim frowns. “What about her?”

“She’s suing me.”

Kim blinks, and then narrows her eyes. “Suing over… possessions?”

“No, we never went that far in our, uh, partnership… relationship,” Drakken sighs. “We couldn’t make it work, nyrrgh. I shouldn’t be telling you about this, excuse me…” He gets up to go.

“Stop,” Kim grabs Drakken by the wrist and he pauses. 

He’s old and he smells. He dresses like trash and communicates like a child. 

But he’s smart, and he’s empathetic. His heart still beats for something. Kim pounces on that because it’s rare in her world.

Kim tells Drakken about Ron, how his superpowers just lead to bitterness. How it felt unfair to her because she could never catch up no matter what she did. But she stops.

She hates herself so much. She sounds like a whiny brat who never got over her high school boyfriend. She’s thirty years old and bitching about someone she’s known since she was four. It makes her appear as a little girl before this man who must at least be pushing sixty. 

But Drakken laughs at one point, and he’s crying happy tears now. He looks at her now and his sharp teeth are arranged in something… pleasant. It makes her heart flutter. “I too grew bitter towards Shego,” Drakken monologues. “I was frustrated because our missions kept failing while she was on her lonesome, and I just thought — if I had the powers and could be there… well, I wouldn’t be crying in Kim Possible’s kitchen right now.”

Kim gets some coffee for herself now. Before it was to keep him conscious to talk, now she needs to be conscious herself. “Is it why you broke up?”

Drakken frowns and looks away, his blue skin going a little violet. “I never told her…”

_ Not directly at least _ , Kim thinks, hoping he’ll say the same.

“...but she always knew,” Drakken admits.

_ They always do _ , Kim hates herself for trying so hard to make it work when he was clearly uncomfortable. 

“And she’s suing you because…”

“Because,” Drakken sighs and it’s just so  _ human.  _ “She thinks I’m trying to steal her powers from her.”

Kim draws back and settles down the mug. She hates herself, but she’s fucking poor. Her apartment is in shambles, she might need to move out to live with her parents soon. No one needs washed up teen heroes without superpowers anymore, she’s a detective without cases. So Kim is seeing dollar signs. 

“You have a case,” Kim says quickly and gets up, looking down at him. This is so wrong. She bites her lip, because she needs money. Drakken can pay up, somehow. Some way. She knows he will.

“Pro bono,” Kim assures him instead, because she really likes him. “If Ed had the wand… and forced you to work with him…”

It dawns on Drakken a little too slowly, but it’s okay. She slides into the seat besides him, her hip bumping his. His legs are a little weak, hers are taut with muscle and warm. She hopes he likes her warmth. Her ankle hooks around his, but he slips out immediately.

“Sorry, must have slipped,” he murmurs.

That’s fine.

“You’re saying I was set-up?” Drakken asks. 

Kim grins. “Undoubtedly.” 

They hold eye contact for a little too long and she gets up, giving him a playful swat on the shoulder. Testing the waters. “You smell. Take a shower, sleep in my bed.”

Drakken flushes. “Oh no, I c-couldn’t… you’re too kind, Kimberly Ann—”

She cocks an eyebrow and slips onto her couch, eying him while she slips a blanket over herself. “Shut off the lights and take a shower.”

She can’t see him in the sudden dark that comes on, but his voice is soft, like Ron’s was when they were in love.

“Alright, Kimberly Ann. We leave tomorrow?”

“First thing!”

Shego is delighted at seeing Kim again, they always had a good rapport. But she grimaces at the sight of Drakken, especially a Drakken that looks  _ good _ . 

Kim can’t afford it, but she thrifts with Drakken before the visit. She tells Drakken that looking good is important and he just kinda stands there in the middle of the store with a blank face. So she drags him around and dolls him up in a cute purple button-up and slick black blazer. 

She feels like a schoolgirl. She needs to amp it down, he’s old. Like really old. Be mature, Kim. Please.

Shego crosses her arms and exchanges some mean remarks with Drakken, and then looks to Kim. “You’re defending him?”

“Yeah,” Kim says. “I don’t think he did it.”

“Yeah. Why?” Shego doesn’t seem impressed.

“Motor Ed has the wand is why,” Kim crosses her arms back, mimicking the same smugness.

“Oh?” Shego takes one long stride up to Kim and grabs her by the scruff of her shirt, pulling her up into the air. The heat kicks up and it makes Kim sweat. She’s small here, she can’t win a fight against superheroes, not like the old days. “Why did I wake up one night with a tiny whittle hand holding up the wand then?”

Kim frowns. Motor Ed has big hands, Dr. Drakken has little hands.

Kim holds up her own hand and splays it out for Shego’s sake. “I have small hands too. Wanna accuse me of a major crime?”

A second hand grabs Kim by the shirt. All the goodwill is gone so fast.

“SHEGO!” Drakken screams and it really brings Kim back to the old days when she’d watch Drakken bicker and bicker with Shego from up high, always so irate and upset. It’s almost nice to see him in the full swing. He grabs Kim — by the hips, y’know she’s pretty sure it’s an accident but it’s by the  _ hips _ and oh — Shego drops Kim and backs off, hands in the air. 

“Okay, so maybe my legal case is flimsy,” Shego says. “But Drak, ya got a motive.”

Drakken winces as if she hit him. “You could at least call me Drew.”

“You could call me Sheila,” Shego spits right back. “Jerk. You’re so upset that you could never be a real villain and then everything with Dementor happened…”

Drakken bites his lip. “Sheg—ila… I obviously hurt you in ways that make you think I hate you. I don’t. I love you.”

Kim’s heart stops and so does Shego’s.

If Kim just third wheeled them back together—

Shego shakes her head. “It ain’t happening, boss. I got my own life now.” She turns away and bobs her hip to the side as if to show off. “And you’re not part of—”

“Leave him alone,” Kim cuts them both off, stepping away from Drakken’s hands. She notes how his hands retreat back to his waist, clutching the lab coat nervously. He just realized where he grabbed her. The chemistry is  _ electric _ . She can’t help it, she’s vibrating inside. Like she wants to go home and strip and… god Possible, get a grip. 

Focus. 

“You want him back in your life because you’re suing him for no reason,” Kim says. “Drop charges and I promise no one will ever try to take your powers.”

Shego narrows her eyes into slits. Back in the ol’ days, that didn’t mean anything.

Now that anyone who has ‘em is a metaphorical  _ God _ … Shego can’t afford to lose her powers. Kim smiles, because she knows she won this fight. 

Shego waves Kim off and locks eyes with Drakken. “Don’t fuck this up.”

“We won’t,” Kim hisses, grabbing Drakken —  _ Drew _ — by the hand. He allows it. 

It takes a long time to get home, and they don’t talk much. Except for this. 

“Drew…” she smiles and wow does his face light up. “You did good back there. It was like seeing you in the old days.”

“Ha,” Drew shakes his head, as if Kim’s not in on the joke. “I was thinking about you, Kimberly Ann—uh, Kim?”

She nods, heart pounding.

“You were so strong talking about the Buff—Ronald, um…”

“Call him Buffoon. Please,” she buries her head into his side.

“Buffoon!”

Kim cackles.

“Anyways,” Drew says. “I was emulating you when you were talking about the Buffoon. You’re so strong, Kim and… it’s… ergh, admirable! Yes.”

Kim smiles but it fades so fast. She takes him home and he stands awkwardly in her doorway. She goes to the kitchen table and looks back at him. It’s right there. She could let him take her. He’s probably an awful top but. It’s there.

“I need to tell you something,” Kim says dryly and reaches into one of her cupboards. Her whole back tenses and when she comes out, she’s holding Aviarius’ power stealing wand in her hands.

Drew’s jaw drops. “Kim…”

She holds up a finger and walks over to one of the windows, pulls back the curtain and there’s Motor Ed on the fire escape. He yelps at the sight of Drew.

“Stop,” Kim snips. She hands him the wand. “Destroy this.”

Motor Ed hesitantly takes the wand, and then leaps away. She knows he’ll do it because he’s scared shitless of Kim. She had to make sure of that after she dumped her life savings into this ridiculous project.

Kim looks back to Drew, hands on her elbows. Drew just stands there lifeless. “I’m weak, see?” she tries to say it with a smile. 

Drew stares. And stares. And stares.

He looks at the ceiling and holds up a finger in delight. He points at her. “No, Kimberly… Kim. You… didn’t need to do that and um… well,  _ I _ think you’re strong.”

Kim chokes out a laugh and tears come to her eyes. “That’s so cheesy.”

Drew blinks in surprise. “I thought it was clever.”

“Yeah, okay,” she lets the tears come. It’s fine. She’s human. She’s not like Ron who stopped caring, or Shego who lashes out in vengeance. “I really wish it was me, I really wish I didn’t get left behind.”

Drew steps closer to her. “I know.”

She grabs him so hard. He takes her a bit more tentatively.

She looks up at him and smashes her face into his. She’s so hungry and his lips are dry and his technique is poor but he tries so hard. They kiss. 


End file.
